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Tech-Wary Buffett Shies Away From Facebook

By Evelyn M. Rusli July 7, 2011 1:48 pmJuly 7, 2011 1:48 pm

Anthony Bolante/Reuters

SUN VALLEY, Idaho — While investors are salivating over the Web’s hottest start-ups, Warren E. Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway, long reticent of technology companies, has no plans to take the plunge into the social networking space.

“It’s not my game,” he said in an interview with DealBook at the Allen & Company conference here. “The world is changing, and I’m lagging behind.”

Mr. Buffett said he was not exactly sure what to make of the multibillion-dollar valuations of Facebook, Groupon, Zynga, LinkedIn and the like.

“A few of them will be worth enormous amounts,” he said. But “I don’t know which ones.”

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The most successful ones, he added, will figure “out something that somebody wants that they don’t know they want now.”

And what about Facebook, the world’s largest social network, which is said to be preparing a public offering that would value the company at more than $100 billion?

“I’m the last guy to ask about that,” Mr. Buffett said.

At 80, the Oracle from Omaha says he’s pretty comfortable sticking with his long-held strategy.

Although fellow attendee, Barry Diller, the chairman of IAC, told reporters Thursday morning that current valuations are “wildly overpriced,” Mr. Buffett said he was optimistic about his ability to find great investments in this market.

“We’re looking for ones that aren’t crazy,” Mr. Buffett said. “Most companies I don’t know how to value, there’s a few that I think I know how to value and every now and then one of those are a price number that falls within my valuation range.”

Despite his bullish outlook on India and China, he’s not rushing to put Berkshire’s capital in Asia.

“The Chinese economy is going to be growing a lot faster than the U.S. economy, but that’s good for us,” Mr. Buffett said. “The world is not a zero-sum game, and we will do much better in the next 50 or 100 years, if the Chinese do better in the 50 or 100 years. And they will.

“They got enormously talented, hardworking people,” he said “They just didn’t have a system that unleashed the potential for a long time. Now the system is unleashing the potential in both countries, and you’re seeing a miracle in both countries.”

As always, Mr. Buffett, who recently traveled to India, is just waiting for the right opportunities.

“I respond to availability,” he said. “If I get a call from China or India, I’m ready act. I don’t get up every morning and think what part of the world do I want to concentrate on; I wait for the phone to ring.”